Tag Archives: Green Gulch Farm

On Thursday July 6, 2017 our third summer trip to Green Gulch Farm with two summer partners brought sunshine and adventures! The farm was a-buzz with discoveries about bees and how they help us in the world. In fact, the first stop for these youth from Hayward Rec Connect and Booker T. Washington Community Service Center was the Green Gulch kitchen and bakery to meet head baker Mick Sopko. Mick and his crew explained how honey is used to mix with yeast to make the bread. The kids got to sample freshly baked bread and it was yummy!Then walking outside, the youth came upon a tree where bees had made a hive. Sukey Parmelee, head grounds manager, shared with them a huge honey comb that was retrieved from the hive. It glistened in gold colors and had the group mesmerized with excitement and picture taking. She talked about bees and how Green Gulch is becoming a bee sanctuary by using more natural hives.
Walking down to the field the youth stopped to find a bird’s nest hidden under the eves of a cottage. They also got to eat edible flowers and berries in the kitchen garden, and stroke the lavender, and rose geraniums and smell their hands. Anything to get them touching nature brings them closer to nature.A great lesson in composting engaged the youth, as they learned the mnemonic for composting ingredients. It was Farm Goats (or Girls) Must Sing, which related to Food, Greens/or Weeds, Manure, and Straw). Not only did they get to put these ingredients together, but they saw the piles covered in the area that were cooking up compost-which gets turned for many days and becomes beautiful soil.
On a walk through the apple orchard youth learned how Green Gulch Farm is dealing with pests. The apples were protected with an elastic sheath to keep the bugs away from the skin as it grows. It looked like all the apples had pajamas on! The youth peeked into the greenhouses and saw vegetable starts. They learned about the care of roots, stems and leaves and planting. Sometimes flats of these starts come to San Francisco to be used in CommunityGrows gardens. One of the plants they are growing is called White Buffalo Calf Woman Tobacco. For tribes throughout North America, the use of traditional tobacco for spiritual, ceremonial, and medicinal purposes goes back thousands of years. It is also used as a bug repellent.Another fun activity was checking out the bees in an outer field. After seeing the bees under glass, youth got to eat sorrel leaves with honey on them-a sharp and sweet taste. Most of them enjoying this tasting adventure!Youth also got to visit the Green Gulch creek and watershed that flows to Muir Beach. The restoration of this creek is helping the revival of coho salmon in the area. After lunch in the quiet circular garden, all youth and their leaders walked through the fields following the watershed and creek down to Muir Beach for fun in the surf. Nearly everyone got soaked and went home happy! Great day to be out of the City enjoying the Farm! Thank you everyone! For more photos, check out our CommunityGrows Flickr Photostream.

On Thursday, June 15, 2017 CommunityGrows arranged to take 40 kids and their mentors to Green Gulch Farm in Marin. It was a beautiful day of learning about meditation and walking through the fields exploring different areas of the farm. Sukey Parmelee, Garden Program Manager, even had her team share a mastodon tooth. Here’s a little information about the mastodons, that roamed the fields of Green Gulch Farm: The mastodon first appeared in the early Miocene and continued in various forms through the Pleistocene Epoch (from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). In North America, mastodons probably persisted into post-Pleistocene time and were thus contemporaneous with historic North American Indian groups. Mastodons had a worldwide distribution; their remains are quite common and are often very well preserved.A characteristic feature of the mastodons, which appear to have fed upon leaves, is the distinctive nature of the grinding teeth, which in many respects are relatively primitive. They are low-crowned, large, and strongly rooted, with as many as four prominent ridges separated by deep troughs; the teeth are much smaller and less complex, however, than those in the true elephants. The prominent upper tusks were long and grew parallel to each other with an upward curvature. Short lower tusks were present in males but absent in females.
Mastodons were shorter than modern elephants but were heavily built. Although the skull was lower and flatter and of generally simpler construction than that of the modern elephants, it was similar in appearance. The ears were smaller and not as prominent as those of elephants. The body was relatively long, and the legs were short, massive, and pillar-like. Mastodons were covered with long, reddish brown hair. The reasons for their extinction are not certain, but, in North America at least, human hunting may have played a role.
Sharing the teeth of the mastodon was just one of the many adventures at Green Gulch Farm. Everyone also got to learn about bees, composting, planting and harvesting. After lunch in the lower garden everyone packed up and walked through the fields to Muir Beach. Lots of fun had by all! For more photos, check out our Flickr Photostream here.

On Thursday, July 21, 2016 CommunityGrows invited three groups-Up on Top, Prince Hall Learning Center and our BEETS-for a final visit to Green Gulch Farm in Marin County this summer. Nestled in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s (GGNRA) Muir Beach watershed, Green Gulch is the perfect adventure for our City kids to explore. Green Gulch is recognized as a place where organic farmers can come to learn the tools of their trade. One of the original architects of the gardens at Green Gulch was the renowned late horticulturist Alan Chadwick—who had introduced the biodynamic farming techniques influenced by Rudolf Steiner on the farm. Green Gulch operates a 7-8 acre organic vegetable farm and a 1 to 1.5-acre fruit, herb and flower garden. The fruit, herb and flower garden is, “arranged in a series of ‘rooms’ in the formal English style. In the bowl of the valley is the core of the gardens: an herbal circle of shrubs, roses and perennials, enclosed by a yew hedge with rose arbors and paths out to the larger garden.What makes Green Gulch unique is that it is an intentional community, a planned residential community designed from the start to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. Green Gulch Farm is also a Zen Center, known as Green Dragon Temple (Soryu-ji), a Buddhist practice center in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition offering training in Zen meditation and ordinary work. It is one of three centers that make up San Francisco Zen Center, which was founded by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Students live on the farm, meditate daily, work in the fields and at various jobs to support their lives together. The Green Gulch Farm community is a steward for the watershed that travels through to Muir Beach and is part of the GGNRA. CommunityGrows is fortunate to have a strong relationship with Green Gulch Farm, which provides docents who led our groups of youth through the fields, and point out interesting areas, engaging them in many learning experiences. Sukey Parmelee, Green Gulch Farm’s Land Advocate, particularly organizes the visits with four or five volunteer docents. On this visit, Sukey joined Dahlia Kamesar, Donn DeAngelo, Dianna and Elizabeth to take different groups on adventures. The BEETS (Band of Environmentally Educated and Employable Teens) had a rare visit with the Green Gulch Baker, Mick Sopko who talked to them about the breads that are made and where they are sold and served every day. The BEETS got to try three kinds of bread, which was one of the highlights of the day. One of their other highlights was meditating in the meditation hall. Through their walk into the fields, Sukey talked to the BEETS about the restoration of the watershed. The restoration provides vital spawning and rearing habitat for salmonids and other species, as well as restores the flood plain and diversifies riparian species. Green Gulch has connected a side creek stem in an above ground channel, which delivers much needed water, sediment, and gravel to the lower creek, providing critical habitat for protected coho, steelhead and California red-legged frogs, as well as many other wild creatures.The youth also got to eat some apples, tomatoes and herbs, and walk through the rows of lettuce, chard, squash. The BEETS watched garden apprentices pack up produce for shipment. After lunch everyone walked down the path to Muir Beach and frolicked in the ocean. One of our BEETS was very impressed with how Green Gulch was such an amazing and supported community. For more photos from the day, see our Flickr Photostream here.

On June 23rd and July 7th CommunityGrows took their summer partners and youth to Green Gulch Farm. On June 23rd the Village Project and the Buchanan YMCA and on July 7th Hayward Rec Connect and Booker T. Washington youth got to go to Green Gulch thanks to CommunityGrows. Some of the highlights were eating Sorrel leaves with honey, looking at the bees, eating plums from the trees, and raspberries from the bushes, smelling lavender, mint and lemon verbena. Anitra Baker and Dayanit Lima from Hayward Rec Connect.They got to see a blue heron standing just ten feet away from them before it flew off. They got to pet a horse grazing in the field too. A highlight was putting their feet in the ocean at Muir Beach. Two great trips and one more this summer.

On Tuesday June 23, 2015 CommunityGrows staff took a bus-load of youth from Up on Top organization and the BEETS (Band of Environmentally Educated and Employable Teens) to Green Gulch Farm for the day. Under sunny skies and after name tags, check-ins and a visit to the temple, the groups split up to enjoy the farm.

The BEETS toured with Sukey Parmelee, who has lived at Green Gulch for many years and serves as “land advocate,” caring for the watershed and the grounds. Since the BEETS are focusing on Water Conservation this summer, Sukey talked with them about and led them through the Green Gulch watershed which goes from Tennessee Valley to Muir Beach. She said the residents of the farm get approximately one-gallon of water per person per day to use for all purposes.
Both groups, Up-on-Top ad the BEETS got to learn about large-scale composting, how the bees are cared for and what is involved in running the farm. They also got to plant lettuce and chard in the garden. After lunch they all took a walk through the lower field to Muir Beach, passing horses on the way. A great day had by all. Thank you Sukey and the great volunteer docents, Onie, Doug, and Audrey, and Dianna and Justin from the garden crew.For more photos see our CommunityGrows Flickr Photostream here.